An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~ Bill Vaughan

Before I bid 2007 a fond farewell, let’s take a quick look at what I knit during this year. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was fond of knitting pairs this year…..

A pair of blankets:

A pair of unfortunate felted items:

Two pairs of fingerless mitts:

A pair of hats (and then realized I hate to knit hats):

Sing it with me…..FIVE KNITTED SCARVES……

And finally (drum roll, please), thirteen pairs of socks!

I don’t set goals (knitting or otherwise) for the new year, but my current knitting plan is to finish my Central Park Hoodie:

It’s New Year’s Eve and I am very happy to bid goodbye to 2007. In regards to the quote in this post’s title: tonight, I will staying up to make sure 2007 leaves. There’s no two ways about it. This year has sucked. It has been the worst of my life.

I said goodbye to my Michigan Kitty and to my Once In A Lifetime dog. I miss both of them every single day. However, I can look at pictures/videos of them and smile. I’m so lucky to have had such wonderful animals in my life.

Also this year, I learned that the disease that struck down Max is also stalking Samantha. Samantha is doing okay. The recent bout of cold weather has been tough on her, but hopefully it warms up soon.

I’ve been battling hip and backproblems for most of this year. However, there is some good news about this. My hip problems have completely healed. My back problem, however, will likely continue for the rest of my life. But, there is good news about this (really). To keep my back pain at bay, I have to work out every other day. I never would have predicted this. I am soooo not a ‘working out’ kind of girl, but it keeps me out of pain, so I do it religiously. I don’t enjoy it (in fact, I hate nearly every second of it), but I do it and I feel fantastic.

There have been other horrible things that have happened this year (which I haven’t blogged about). Thankfully, there are good things happening as a result of these bad things, too.

I am hopeful that 2008 will not just be a lot better than 2007, but will be a fantastic year.

Yeah, like the new look. You did quite a lot of sock knitting over the last year! This year didn’t start out all the well for me either. Just heard yesterday, that my father might have cancer. Tests are being done, we’ll know soon. That sucks. Hope this year will go better for you, then the last one did.

Here’s hoping that 2008 is, at the very least, uneventful for your pets. I was reading your blog when Parker passed, but didn’t know that Max passed this year also – my heart goes out to you. Any one of those events would’ve made for a sour year, and the fact that you had to deal with that twice is just not fair.